Caught Bleeding
by ShakeItBlue
Summary: Bella has cut herself shaving... how will Edward react?


**OK... so this is my first (published) fanfic EVER so it's unlikely that it'll be read by many people but oh well!**

**So, this little one shot is just an idea that I wanted to try. Vampire Edward, human Bella...**

**Caught Bleeding**

The soothing qualities of a hot shower, usually so potent, were having little effect tonight as thoughts of Edward bounced around my befuddled mind. My body and mind seemed like two completely separate entities as I lathered strawberry scented shampoo into my hair. My body was warm and calm, if a little tense around the shoulders from my emotionally draining day in the meadow, with my own personal angel.

My chaotic thoughts on the other hand boarded on something close to clinical paranoia. I couldn't stay focused on one train of thought before mental pictures of his face, his smile, his laugh, would burst into my head. I had realised it before but it was even more pronounced now... he dazzled me.

Once I had finished with my "human minute" (that had consisted largely of shampoo, conditioner, soap and shaving) I cut the water and stumbled from the shower, proud that I didn't slip on the slippery, tiled floor.

I dressed in a feverish haste to get back to my room, paying no attention to what I was doing and praying that I got the right limbs through the right holes. I did the comic towelling of the hair and threw my discarded clothes and towel into the washing basket, somehow out of the room before they had settled.

I was surprised at myself; I was much to coordinated this evening, something akin to karma would probably pay me back before long in a public and most likely highly embarrassing way.

Charlie was glued to the TV as usual when I dashed downstairs in my stretched, faded and hole ridden pyjamas.

"Night, Ch-Dad!" I called over the footy commentator's excited exclamations, sport...

"Oh, night, Bells." He replied with a surprised look at my messy attire. "Not goin' out tonight?"

My lips smiled over gritted teeth. He just _had_ to choose tonight to be perceptive. "Nope, early night for me. Night, Dad."

"Yeah okay, see ya, Bells." And he was satisfied... for now, until he creeps in tonight to check on me. But right then I didn't care.

I rocketed up the stairs, thoughtless for my ungraceful lack of coordination. I reached my room without incident, however, and opened the door with a sense that I would find the room beyond empty. But there he was, still frozen on my bed just as he'd been when I'd left; his hair still windswept from our run that afternoon, that terrifying speed as the forest passed in a blur. But before I could grin myself silly at him I saw the flicker of something sinister pass across his face as I tripped into my room. Ah, here was my klutzy karma.

I saw the edge of my desk come closer and closer to me as I tried desperately to right my balance to no avail. My face thankfully didn't smash into the pointy, wooden corner as someone's cold, hard arms swiftly yanked me away to the safety of the desk-less empty space. But even as he did this I could tell something was wrong. The way he held his arms so stiffly around my upper back and under my knees, the lack of movement of his chest and the low almost silent snarl coming from between his clenched teeth.

"Edward?" I whispered worriedly, troubled by the dark look on his face. He didn't seem to hear me as he very slowly sat me on the bed before walking backwards until his back hit the wall. His hands were shaking subtly and were clenched into fists, balled by his side. He was slumped forward slightly but hesitantly as though he was indecisive about something, a threatening but furious scowl on his stunningly beautiful face.

"Edward, what's the matter?" I demanded standing from the bed and starting towards him. His eyes, black now rather than the golden topaz of the afternoon, widened in a warning that I finally understood. His eyes, still wide and wild, stared intently into my own for a long moment before shooting to the floor at my feet. He still wasn't breathing.

I glanced down and inhaled sharply, face paling. On the bottom of my right leg there was a spreading patch of crimson about the size of a small apple. I yanked up my track pants and gasped again at the clotting scratch on my calf. I must have cut myself shaving as I hadn't fallen recently, well fallen bad enough to draw blood. The cut wasn't very deep or long but there was enough blood to turn my stomach and even worse... Edward.

I jerked my head up to watch him fearfully, seeing the conflict in his eyes and his semi crouch suddenly had a more sinister meaning. He had looked away from my foot and was now glaring at the ceiling, so motionless he was again the statue of Adonis only this time he looked tortured.

As I watched, he jerked his head to the window and unlocked his lips to talk. "I need to leave." He spat out in a strained voice, as far as I could see he still wasn't breathing. But I couldn't find it in me to care about that, I tried not to scream at the thought of him leaving. I couldn't find it in me to care about how close I was to being killed; I just flinched away from the pain I knew his absence tonight would cause me.

He had to stay; it was as simple as that. But if he left now, I knew he wouldn't come back tonight.

" No!" I breathed, trying hard not to make any sudden movements as I moved slowly to my dresser and grabbed a clean pair of track pants. "Please don't go. Stay. Let me just go to the bathroom and change-" He shook his head jerkily and pinched the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and thumb. This posture reminded me of that night in Port Angeles when he had been so furious at my would-be attackers he had almost lost control. It hurt me that my blood did this to him.

So I held still. I stood so still I could have been a statue myself. I didn't let my chest or stomach expand or contract as I breathed in and out. I didn't shift my weight to my right foot even as my left began to throb. I didn't even blink more than was absolutely necessary. It took quite a time even for a vampire before he exhaled slowly and relaxed his tense posture into a tired but upright position.

Still I didn't want to make this harder for him by talking, I stayed a statue.

"It's okay, Bella." His velvet voice wasn't quite as smooth as normal but the strained almost pained tone had gone and the rigid, dark glare on his face had been removed and replaced by careful blankness. "Don't be afraid, it's under control." I didn't melt just yet; I just glared at the floor and hated my weak body for being tempting in all the wrong ways. All the ways that hurt him. And then there were tears in my eyes, running down my cheeks as I miserably thought about how unsuited I was to him and how much I wish I was.

"Bella!" He was instantly at my side in one of the movements so fast I didn't see him move. In another second I was in his arms on my bed, fighting back tears into his still unmoving chest. His stillness just highlighted the reasons for my despair and depressed me that little bit further. "Bella, I am so sorry. Please, Bella, I promise to leave the second you stop crying, I just need to be sure you'll be okay. Please, Bella."

_That_ gave me pause. "Leave? Edward, I don't want you to leave!" My voice was embarrassingly thick with tears.

"After that disgusting display I really should. I should never have acted so in front of you, that was much too close to a very bad loss of control. Inexcusable." He sounded strained again, tortured by what could have happened. I couldn't let that go on.

"No, Edward, I wasn't scared. Well, not in the way you mean. I've already accepted the dangers of being in love with a vampire and-"

"You've _accepted the dangers_? Accepted the dangers? You've accepted that if you move the wrong way or fall at the wrong time or even cut yourself shaving that you'll die?! Those things hardly deserve the death penalty!" He was outraged again, internally it seemed. But I didn't want to see that anguished look on his face a moment longer, I couldn't stand that I was the one to put it there.

"Please, please don't think about it!" I whispered urgently pulling his face to face me with one hand on either cheek. "Please, Edward, let's just not talk about that tonight." I pushed my face into his shoulder like a child but warmed again as he tentatively wrapped his arms around my shoulders. He sighed in my ear, his cool breath raising goose bumps.

"Alright. But, Bella, you're rubbing your leg on the sheets. It's getting stained." He sat me up slowly and slid fluidly and gracefully off the bed to kneel beside my legs on the floor. He took a handkerchief from his breast pocket and pulled my pants up to my knee; I blushed and started to pull my leg back.

"Oh, no, you don't have to-" I stuttered not wanting to put him in anymore discomfort. He ignored me and began to wipe the wet blood from the jagged scratch; I watched his carefully blank face and noticed his chest was still. He wasn't breathing.

"Bella, can you pass me that glass of water, please?" His voice was just as empty as his face. Controlled, reigned in, tight. I leaned to the bedside table and handed him the half full glass. He tipped some onto the red splotched handkerchief and continued to clean the graze, his butterscotch eyes now a light brown nearing black. He would have to go hunting again soon.

It was silent for a very tense minute. I felt the familiar fire burn under my skin where his long fingers gripped my calf gently, the other firmly wiping the red stain away and holding down the cloth to clot the blood.

"There." He said suddenly, drawing back a little. I glanced down at my leg and fervently hoped that my cheeks, which were flushed red from his touch, had dimmed some.

"Oh," I stuttered unintelligibly, watching his knees as he sat back on his heels. "Thanks."

"You're most welcome." He replied with a hint of a smile in his voice, I looked up quickly and saw him smiling at me despite the strain of the past couple of minutes. His lips had stretched up in the crooked smile that caught my breath in my throat and fluttered my heart, sending it into frantic pulses. Almost immediately, that sense of despair crashed down on me as I took in Edward in all his stunning perfection and wondered how this divine creature could ever be mine.

He didn't seem to notice my tortured thoughts as he kneeled before me and stroked slowly down my cheek. I gasped a little and felt my mouth drop open in surprise and astonishment.

"You're amazing," he whispered to me, his sweet breath desensitising me.

"How so?" I managed to choke out, my voice sounding like a chain saw beside his velvet pur. He chuckled as though I was missing the obvious.

"You still want me to stay after I very nearly-" he swallowed hard "- almost..." He trailed off, not finishing the devastating sentence. I couldn't care about that while he was so close... touching me...

"I'll always want you, no matter what you do. I just hope that there's enough about me to keep you interested." I confessed my insecurities to him in a hushed rush, dropping my eyes to my lap. Edward's hand yanked my face up sharply, harder than usual.

"Don't even think that, do you hear me?!" He hissed inches away now. "You're worth more than you know, Isabella Swan, do not even compare yourself to me!"

In a very un-Edward like move he jerked forward swiftly and pressed his cold lips to mine.

I never understood how someone whose body was as cold as the inside of a freezer could heat my skin to an almost painful high, his hands leaving in their wake a trail of wildfire that danced on my feverish skin like flames on tinder. And of course my body's reactions to his kiss were uncontrollable and stupid, my human flaws.

I inhaled deeply, his scent setting my senses tingling. I threw my hands around his neck, clutching him as close as I could so that maybe just maybe I could keep him prisoner here in my arms. I wished I were strong enough to hold him here and never let go, but physically he walked all over me.

I felt him stiffen and sigh, drawing backwards from me and my crazy attack. I held on with all my might... I don't think he even noticed, he broke my hold.

"I won't say I'm sorry." I gasped before he could scold me for being foolish; he blinked and stared at me uncomprehendingly.

"I wasn't going to ask you too. Believe it or not, I like that you want me... I just wish that you could control yourself better." He watched with amusement as my face heated (if that were humanly possible), a smirk playing its way across his marble lips.

" I won't promise I'll work on that." I muttered into my chest as we lay down to sleep, I heard him give a short rumble of laughter before kissing my forehead goodnight.

**OK, so that's pretty much it.**

**-ShakeItBlue**


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